This invention concerns a furnace with refractory longitudinal members and with central charging for heating and storing hot products.
The heating furnace with central charging and storage of hot products according to this invention is applied to plants for heating semi-finished products of a great length (even greater than 10-12 meters) and a modest section which does not permit charging with external conveyor equipment.
The heating furnace according to this invention is applied also to plants of which the rate of charging of products is equal to or less than about eighty pieces per hour.
The heating furnace according to the invention arranges that the hot charge fed centrally comes from a continuous casting plant or from previous hot processes.
Various types of furnace with central charging have been disclosed in the state of the art.
A type of plant with central charging has been disclosed with cooled beams and with a lower heating chamber.
Owing to the existence of a free lower chamber the introduction into the furnace is carried out on idler rollers, which are not cooled and consist of heat-resistant materials and are upheld on cooled supports passing through the lower hearth of the furnace.
By means of this embodiment the process is shortened, as also is the stay time of the hot products in the furnace, but this does not overcome the problem of storage. Another embodiment consists of a furnace with central introduction of the charge ant with refractory longitudinal members.
In this case too only the aim of shortening the stay time of the hot products in the furnace is fulfilled, while the technological solution disclosed requires the use of a gripping machine to introduce the products without contact with the hearth.
The limitations of this embodiment consist of the short length of the products which can be charged, the high cost of the machine, the higher consumption of energy, the lower mechanical reliability and, lastly, the lack of a solution to collect the scale at the position of introduction of hot products.